No Time For Flash Cards » Recycled Crayons

Recycled Crayons for Halloween

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:01:28 +0000

Free Art Friday !

Free Art or Open Ended Art is crucial! Kids need to be able to have no boundaries and simply create. I get asked often how I schedule my son’s learning and really I don’t have a strict schedule. We play and the learning comes from that most of the time- I throw in crafts every second day or so and we read all the time. Crayons, markers, paper and stickers are always available for easy creations. Today we didn’t make a craft we made the materials, recycled crayons. It’s easy and fun. You may notice a change in my son from the making to the using, we popped out and got a hair cut, and sucker !

Gather your materials. You need orange crayons, a single black crayon, muffin tin and non stick spray.
Pre-heat your oven to 250.
Peel the paper off your crayons.
Break your orange crayons into little pieces, easily the favorite step for my son.
Pop them into the greased muffin tin.
Into the oven it took about 10 minutes to melt. While it melts, peel and break the black crayon into small bits.
Add small bits of the black crayons to the orange. I tried to make a face but it didn’t work- you could use shavings and place them as the crayons are cooling.
Pop back into the oven for a few minutes.
Swirl the wax and let cool.
Tip if the crayons aren’t releasing from the muffin tin , put them in the freezer for a few minutes and they will pop right off.
Now it’s time for fun – use the crayons for some free art! My son was excited to use the crayons HE made !
If you can’t tell that is a pumpkin and goblin eating a string cheese. As per my son’s explanation! Have fun !

Crayola + Heatwave = Fun !

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:38:00 +0000

Eco Friendly Crayon Melts

I have made recycled crayons before – and I got a little addicted to doing them and made a million for Christmas presents but yesterday was the first time I did it without using an oven. The heatwave on the west coast was in full swing and I decided to try something new… and it worked!

Gather your materials. You will need some wax crayons, aluminum foil, cookie cutters, a paper plate and a very hot sunny spot.
Start by peeling and breaking your crayons into small pieces. I left some chunky bits because it was well over 100 and figured it would be fine, if the day was cooler I’d used shavings to melt faster.
Cover the plate in aluminum foil
Place the plate with the cookie cutters in a sunny spot
Add the broken crayons
Wait- in 100+ heat this took an hour to melt, but I had lots of really big pieces.
Yay they melted!
Let cool inside, then pop out of the cookie cutters. Mine slid right out, I just broke off the little bit of extra that slipped out on the bottom.
Color on scrap paper for a truly eco friendly activity!

Vroom Vroom !

admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Candy Mold

Crayons

In preparation for my son’s 2nd birthday , I have been playing around with making fun loot bag gifts. Here is my favorite so far, candy mold crayons. Super easy to make, kids love to use them to color and a huge bonus being that my son who eats every art supply under the sun seems to leave these alone!

Gather your materials. You will need some crayons ( about 4-5 per mold), an oven , disposable muffin liners, and a candy mold. I bought this candy mold from Micahel’s for less than $2 !
Take the paper off the crayons, and break them into smaller pieces. Place them in a muffin tin .
Melt.
Pour into the mold and let sit for an hour or until it’s cool. I used a cookie rack under the mold to keep it stable.
Pop out of the mold.
Get drawing !